A bogus black cab driver is being sought after a passenger was locked in the back of a taxi, driven to a quiet cul-de-sac and mugged by a waiting gang.

Terrified victim Nigel Dennis said he feared for his life as the gang dragged him from the car, kicking him in the head and breaking his front tooth – all for just £40.

His ordeal began at about 11.45pm on Wednesday night, when he jumped into the back of the black cab at the rank outside Reading Railway Station.

The 44-year-old had been at Newbury racecourse and then drinking with friends before asking the cab to take him to his home in Twyford.

Mortgage broker Mr Dennis said: “About four or five of us went into the Three Guineas to watch the Chelsea game. I was okay, I’d just had a few drinks. I was quite tired because I’d been up early. I got into the cab, I was quite drowsy. The cab driver didn’t really say anything.

“I just noticed that we had taken a turning off the Bath Road going towards Woodley. So I said, ‘You’re going the wrong way’. There was no response, so I said, ‘Stop the car’, and there was still no response.

“Then he pulled into a little cul-de-sac just off the Bath Road and stopped the car.”

Mr Dennis continued: “Then three other blokes got out of another car that must have followed us or been waiting there. They dragged me out of the car. I got a leathering. I actually got kicked in the face. The police have got a photo of me and you can see a bootprint in my face. That’s what broke my tooth.”

The gang, who were all Asian and described as being in their mid-20s to mid-30s, then stole £40 from Mr Dennis.

The father-of-two staggered from the cul-de-sac and found himself on Sonning Lane, where he called police. He said: “They took £40. It was just as well I didn’t get lucky at the races. It hardly seems worth it.”

Mr Dennis said he was frightened that he might be killed in the ordeal.

He said: “There was an occasion where you think about what

happened in Henley last week [the death of Stephen Langford]. I thought this could get really, really bad.

“My family were all upset but relieved it wasn’t worse.”

Mr Dennis contacted the Evening Post because he wanted people to be aware that they could find

themselves locked in the back of a black cab in the same way he had been.

He said: “If it had been a minicab and if the guy had gone the wrong way I could have done something about it. I could have tackled the

driver or pulled the handbrake. In a black cab you can’t do anything. The problem is that people do say black cabs should be okay. But once you’re in there, there’s nothing you can do until the driver opens the door.”